As is well known in the art, a Plossl type eyepiece is a relatively wide field eyepiece comprising two achromatic doublets in which the crown elements usually face each other. Such eyepieces are capable of good performance, i.e., acceptable degrees of aberrations, to about a 50.degree. field. Generally, in order to minimize aberrations at the exit pupil and distortion, all air glass surfaces of the eyepiece are made convex. However, thre have been Plossl type eyepieces used commercially in astronomical instruments in which the external flint surfaces are plano.